US Marshals Shoot Innocent Man While Looking For Someone Else—No Explanation Provided
Feds don't wear body cameras.
U.S. marshals hunting for a murder suspect in Albuquerque instead shot and killed 23-year-old Edgar Alvarado, who lived two trailers down from the suspect.
The shooting occurred on Saturday, and according to KOB 4, the U.S. marshals have not yet offered an explanation for the shooting. Alvarado's family also told KOB 4 they haven't been contacted about Edgar's killing and insist he was an innocent bystander.
Some family members believe marshals shot and killed Alvarado because they mistook him for George Hunt, the murder suspect. "It's the fault of the boss of this police," Juan Manuel Alvarado told KOB 4. "If he's training people to kill, then he should just say it out loud so people know."
According to Juan, Alvarado did not die instantly and was denied medical attention. In a statement, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) said it was called to the scene after shots were fired, in order to "provide perimeter and emergency medical services to the scene." They deny any member of their force was there during the shooting.
The APD is currently being monitored by the Department of Justice after it found a pattern and practice of abuse in a 2014 investigation.
But, as KOB 4 explains, the feds don't hold their own law enforcement officials to the same standards as those they monitor:
The US Department of Justice talks a big game about transparency and the need for officers to wear lapel cameras, but their own federal officers are not required to wear them.
In fact, local officers working with federal agents don't have to wear them either, as federal policies trump local ones.
The U.S. Marshals service policy does not allow for lapel cameras at scenes, and federal agents have not released any information on the shooting, directing all requests to New Mexico State Police.
There was a lack of a body camera at the recent FBI shooting at the end of the Oregon stand-off as well. Instead, the feds released video from a helicopter in an attempt to appear transparent. That shooting did not create an impetus to equip federal law enforcement officials with body cameras in the way the feds themselves are helping local law enforcement officials be equipped.
Neither, for that matter, did the U.S. marshals shooting of an unarmed man in 2015 who had spent eight years under state supervision after being caught once with 20 oxy pills. Even Black Lives Matters' fairly comprehensive policy agenda makes no mention of federal law enforcement officials and the rules that should apply to them.